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Draft Revised Questionnaire

Here's the draft of the revised Questionnaire that I've been working on.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions that you may have. I just ask that you go through the Questionnaire first as if you were considering the purchase of a new knife.

I hope to include embedded links where you see "LINK" that were included in the original Questionnaire.

Thanks.

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Please refer to the Kitchen Knife Knowledge sub forum (LINK) and the Kitchen Knife Glossary thread (LINK) for general information, including types of knives and knife terminology, used in this questionnaire.
There’s no need to elaborate or explain your answer to a “yes” or “no” question. Let’s begin! LOCATION
What country are you in? KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in? E.g., Chef’s Knife (or Gyuto), Slicer (or Sujihiki), Boning Knife, Utility Knife (or Petty), Bread Knife, Paring Knife, Yanagiba, Deba, Usuba, Meat Cleaver, Vegetable Cleaver?
Are you right or left handed?
Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese (wa) handle?
What length of knife are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?
Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no.)
What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife (i.e., “I’m not spending one more euro/pence/penny/peso/yen more than this”)?KNIFE USE
Where do you primarily intend to use this knife?

At home or a professional environment? (Please feel free to specify what type of work environment, e.g., catering, restaurant, butchery, seafood.)

How often? (Please feel free to specify how many hours a day, and days per week.)

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)
What knife, if anything, are you replacing?
Is your primary grip when you hold your knife a “pinch” grip (i.e., holding the knife in front of the handle with your thumb and index finger on opposite sides of the knife)? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.) (Yes or no.)
What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used, e.g., rock chop, rock mince, push cut, pull cut.)
What improvements do you want from your current knife? Please identify all improvements that you would like this knife to have. (If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)

Comfort (e.g., lighter/heavier knife; better handle material (e.g., nicer type of wood or synthetic material); better handle shape (e.g., shorter or taller height, thicker or thinner, shorter or longer length); rounded spine/choil of the knife; improved balance (i.e., please identify how you like the knife to be balanced, whether toward the blade, in front of the handle, or toward the handle) –

Ease of Use (e.g., ability to use the knife right out of the box; smoother rock chopping, push cutting, or slicing motion; less wedging; better food release; less reactivity with food; easier to sharpen) –

Edge Retention (i.e., length of time you want the edge to last without sharpening based on your expected use above) –

KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Is it very important that your knife require only minimal daily maintenance? (i.e., only need to wash and dry after use, occasional sharpening) (Yes or no.)
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber (e.g., Sani-Tuff) or synthetic cutting board (e.g., any type of plastic, Hi-Soft, etc.)? (Yes or no.)
Do you sharpen your knives on your own using any type of whetstone? (Yes or no.)

If “yes,” are you looking to purchase more specific products for this knife? (Yes or no.)

If “no,” will you have your knives professionally sharpened? (Yes or no.)

If “no,” are you interested in learning how to sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)

If “yes” to the question immediately above, what is the absolute maximum amount of money you would be willing to put toward sharpening products?

Is the cutting board question really intended to be yes/no, or to specify type?

The maintenance question might be vague because I doubt many new people can imagine what other care may be required.

Nice work Mike!

The cutting board question is meant to be "yes" or "no." All of the types of boards identified are generally accepted to be sufficient; by answering "no", without forcing the person completing the questionnaire to specify what kind of board they have, we'll know that they have a board that isn't really good.

The way I looked at this was that a "no" response means they have either a glass, stone, metal cutting board, none of which are good for knives. But, I figured that this would eliminate any specific ridicule for the person who completed the questionnaire for the kind of board they have. We'll know they need an upgrade though.

As for maintenance, I phrased the question that way because it seemed to me that there are people who really want a knife that does not require maintenance, and the rest of the people are willing to do more, up to a certain limit. I will say, I had trouble phrasing that question to get the kind of information needed without leading to ridicule, e.g. a person responds to a different question that asks "Are you willing to wipe down your knife regularly during use?" A "no" response might be met with, "Why not?"

A good beginning, I would tend to say. Two very first remarks if you don't mind.
I would like to find out whether a poster uses poor sharpening equipment, e.g. a diamond rod or a pull through sharpener, or may be used to steel his knives with a grooved steel.
It might be useful to know whether he is fine with the asymmetry he will encounter especially with Japanese knives.

A good beginning, I would tend to say. Two very first remarks if you don't mind.
I would like to find out whether a poster uses poor sharpening equipment, e.g. a diamond rod or a pull through sharpener, or may be used to steel his knives with a grooved steel.
It might be useful to know whether he is fine with the asymmetry he will encounter with especially Japanese knives.

I did not want to include the question worded the same way as it was in the first questionnaire because it immediately led to comments about how such equipment was inferior, etc. I felt that by simply asking whether they use any whetstone of any kind was enough information to know that they have a start on how to sharpen knives (and members can just add that stones are the way to go - no other comments necessary, explanation of asymmetry can be included in recommendations of HOW to sharpen).

If they do not have whetstones, members will know that the person will need to either (1) buy sharpening equipment or (2) get it professionally sharpened. Both of which are follow up questions.

Asymmetry wasn't part of the original questionnaire and I agree with not asking that. Comments primarily focused on making this more friendly for novices. Bringing asymmetry in to the mix goes the opposite way. Members that recommend knives can point out that a knife has asymmetric bevels or an asymmetric edge, etc.

A number of questions are phrased in a manner where we learn critical information by what is not stated; we learn by a "no" answer that the person does not have something that is generally considered to be necessary or even essential going forward.

I just ask that you consider this as you go through the Questionnaire. This was all done with the intent of reducing/eliminating any embarrassment the person completing the Questionnaire may have if the person simply stated they have "x, y, z" that members do not agree with.

As a noob who recently filled out the questionnaire, I really like the changes. I was able to figure out what types of answers were expected by browsing the forum for a while before making my post, but I think the example answers for each question will be a big help in getting useful answers in initial post rather than sussing them out with follow up questions.

I was also going to make the comment about the board question being Yes/No, but I see where you are going with it so it makes sense to me now.

Asking whether people are fine with edge asymmetry is IMHO essential for knowing if they're prepared to deal with a Japanese knife. Blade asymmetry is a general phenomena when dealing with decent knives, Japanese, French or even German. It might be attenuated, or less obvious, though, where lasers are concerned. I would like to know if a poster insists on symmetrical sharpening. With some knives, acceptable results may be achieved. On others, it's just asking for serious problems after a few sharpenings - bizarre steering, wedging, you know.

Asking whether people are fine with edge asymmetry is IMHO essential for knowing if they're prepared to deal with a Japanese knife. Blade asymmetry is a general phenomena when dealing with decent knives, Japanese, French or even German. It might be attenuated, or less obvious, though, where lasers are concerned. I would like to know if a poster insists on symmetrical sharpening. With some knives, acceptable results may be achieved. On others, it's just asking for serious problems after a few sharpenings - bizarre steering, wedging, you know.

We'll put this to the members then.

Who feels that this is something that needs to be included in the Questionnaire?